Meaty spinach lasagne with béchamel sauce (Lasagne verdi al forno)

Meaty spinach lasagne with béchamel sauce (Lasagne verdi al forno)

About this recipe:An especially lovely and hearty lasagne. The gorgeous green colour and flavour of spinach lasagne sheets layered with minces of pork, beef and ham as well as beautifully earthy chicken livers and salty bacon will assure that your meaty lasagne needs are beautifully met! Herbs, spices, cheeses, veg and the creamy béchamel sauce only add to this rich beautiful Italian lasagne. A bit of extra work, but so very worth it.

The email addresses you've entered will not be stored and will only be used to send this email. Privacy policy

Ingredients
Serves: 8

Pasta

140g spinach - rinsed, stemmed and dried

2 eggs

100g pasta flour

1 teaspoon salt

190g plain flour

Ragu

30g butter

2 rashers bacon, diced

1 carrot, diced

1 stick celery, diced

1 onion, diced

100g lean pork mince

100g lean beef mince

100g minced ham

2 tablespoons tomato purée

1 teaspoon dried oregano

240ml beef stock

salt and pepper to taste

100g chicken livers, trimmed and chopped

Béchamel

30g butter

2 tablespoons plain flour

480ml warm milk

1 pinch salt

1 pinch ground nutmeg

Cheese

135g grated Parmesan cheese

570g ricotta cheese

45g butter

View list

Add to shopping list

Turn this recipe into a shopping list you can print, email, view on your mobile or shop online. It's free! Powered by Whisk.com

MethodPrep:1hr › Cook:30min › Ready in:1hr30min

To make pasta dough:

Steam the spinach in a steamer or over boiling water until bright green, 2 minutes. Squeeze to remove excess moisture and process in a food processor to make a paste. Combine spinach with eggs, pasta flour and salt and process until smooth. Stir in enough of the flour to make a smooth dough. Knead briefly, cover and set aside.

To make ragu:

In a large frying pan, melt butter over medium-high heat. Saute bacon, carrot, celery and onion until onion is translucent. Stir in pork, beef and ham and cook until browned. Stir in tomato purée, oregano and beef stock (reserve the chicken livers for later). Season with salt and pepper, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 20 minutes.

To make béchamel:

While the ragu is simmering, combine 2 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons flour in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Whisk to make a roux. Remove from heat, let rest one minute, then whisk in warm milk. Return to heat, simmer 10 minutes, stirring constantly, until thickened. Season with salt and nutmeg. Remove from heat.

To cook pasta:

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to the boil. On a floured surface, divide pasta dough into three portions. Roll each portion out to a thin sheet. Have ready an ice water bath. Cook each sheet 3 minutes in the boiling water; remove from the boiling water and dip in the ice water; drain and dry on a clean, dry cloth.

To finish ragu:

Stir the chicken livers into the simmering sauce. Cook 1 minute, remove from heat and set aside.

Preheat oven to 200 C / Gas 6. Grease a 20x30cm baking dish.

To assemble lasagne:

Place one pasta sheet in bottom of prepared baking dish. Spread one third of the ragu, one quarter of the béchamel, one third of the ricotta and one quarter of the Parmesan over the pasta. Repeat layers twice. Top with remaining béchamel and Parmesan and dot with butter.